David Cartwright wrote:
"Dan" wrote in message
oups.com...

Last night I took a quick trip to KYUM. On approach, the controller
mentioned that the "arresting gear was up" on the runway
Does anyone know what would have happened if I had landed on it? This
type of thing seems quite dangerous to GA aircraft.


One has to wonder why they didn't put it down for you (the fact that they
said it was up suggests it was retractable). As for what would have
happened - well, it would almost certainly have damaged your landing gear.


The cable was probably manually operated only. Normal configuration for
manual cables is to have the approach end cable removed, and the
departure end cable strung across the runway. That way, military jets
that have brake failure or abort takeoff can snag it and come to a stop.
If the wind shifts and requires a runway change, then the tower has to
direct a crew out there to change the cable configuration. They may not
have had enough time to do that before you came in, or you may have been
operating "opposite direction" in able to get the ILS approach. There's
a good article about cables at the following link, it even mentions an
incident where an MD-88 snagged a cable during takeoff roll and came to
a stop.
http://www.boeing.com/assocproducts/...ingsystems.pdf

I'm not sure the E-28 cables at Yuma are remotely retractable.

Incidentally, even if the arresting gear was down, you should always try not
to land before it (assuming there's plenty of runway the other side - which
there should be). I did part of my PPL training at RAF Coltishall, which has
arrester gear that sits in a little channel across the runway when it's
down. If you roll over the channel, you get a hell of a bump.

David C


Ahh, RAF Coltishall. I spent 2 tours over in East Anglia. One at
Ben****ers/Woodbridge, the other at Mildenhall. It's amazing how many
airfields they squeezed into such a small area.

John